July 16, 2026
To the moon? Or straight to doom?
SPCX is now Wall Street's most shorted new stock
Bears pile in as traders ask if SpaceX hype is cracking and Elon finally pushed it too far
TLDR: SpaceX is now the most heavily bet-against new stock on Wall Street, with traders making billions on its recent slide and more turbulence expected when insiders can start selling. Commenters are fighting over whether this proves the IPO price was absurd, Elon scared investors, or everyone is just addicted to Musk drama.
Wall Street may be betting against SpaceX, but the real fireworks are in the comment section. After the company became the most shorted major new stock on the market — with roughly 28% of its tradable shares being wagered against and paper profits for short sellers nearing $3.88 billion — commenters immediately split into two camps: "the IPO was overpriced" versus "everyone is overreacting because it’s Elon". One user basically asked the question hanging over the whole frenzy: if the stock already dipped below its launch price, are traders saying the pain is still not over?
That opened the floodgates. The sharpest hot take blamed Elon Musk’s decision to pour money into xAI, with one commenter suggesting the market is delivering its own brutal review of that spending spree. Others pushed back, saying the giant short interest doesn’t automatically mean doom — every short seller has a buyer on the other side, so maybe this is less a death sentence and more a giant neon sign flashing "volatility ahead". In plain English: people aren’t agreeing on whether SpaceX is broken, overpriced, or just wildly dramatic.
Then there’s the next soap-opera twist: early investors may soon be allowed to sell more shares after upcoming earnings, which many commenters think could trigger another drop. Add in the famous "Musk premium" — that strange force that keeps fans and critics glued to anything he touches — and the vibe online is basically: this stock is no longer an investment story, it’s a spectator sport.
Key Points
- •Short interest in SpaceX rose to 181 million shares, or 28% of its 646 million-share tradable float, making it the most shorted newly listed stock in its first month of trading according to the article.
- •SpaceX shares briefly fell below their $135 IPO price before closing at $135.27, and the stock declined about 10% over the previous five trading sessions.
- •Short sellers’ unrealised gains were estimated at about $3.88 billion, with roughly 37 million additional shares worth about $5 billion added to short positions in the past week.
- •The article says investors are questioning SpaceX’s valuation, noting it traded at around 49 times expected revenue versus about 15 times for Tesla, while also reacting to its $25 billion bond raise for AI infrastructure.
- •Upcoming catalysts cited in the article include lockup expiry, the 13th Starship test flight, and second-quarter earnings expected in the first week of August, even as most analysts remain bullish.